PIANOTIME, Year XX - Nr.184
(Publitarget Srl)
THE COVER
An Argentinian in Rome (Page 16):
Sergio Calligaris
rigours, discipline and fantasy
of the pianist and composer,
di Raffaella Brizzi

Performed as its World Première at Teatro Grande in Latina, on the occasion of the 37th Edition of Festival Pontino.
Sergio Calligaris
and his "Sonata op.38 for clarinet and piano"
A rigorous pianist and composer who has discipline as his main principle, but at the same time is solar and fond of humanity.

Argentinian, born in Rosario, he lived for a long time in the United States. But at a certain point of his life, after a career full of concerts and travels, he fell in love with a city: Rome. And he hasn't left it any more. He taught in Italy since 1974, first at the State Conservatory of Music "S.Pietro a Majella" of Naples, then at the "Luisa D'Annunzio" of Pescara, and finally at the "Alfredo Casella" of L'Aquila.
He is often invited to act as a member of the jury for important national and international piano competitions. His compositions have been performed with great success in Italian and international festivals, by the RAI, in numerous cities: from the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Hall, to the Juilliard School of Music in New York, as well as many other important cities all over the world.
He recorded a lot for important labels such as EMI-His Master's Voice, Classico Records and, recently, Agorà, distributed by Nuova Carisch. It is worth mentioning the CD with his Concerto op.29, the Second Suite of Symphonic Dances op.27 and the Sonata-Fantasia op.32.
His very first composition was written and performed in a theatre when he was 10 and, since then, he's continued composing. Since he was 13 he's concertized in the most prestigious halls around the world and, as a teacher, he held the Main Scholarship of Piano in the United States: since 1966 at The Cleveland Institute of Music; since 1969, at the California State University in Los Angeles.
It is worth recalling some of his works, such as the "Symphonic Dances" (in homage to Bellini) op.26 for large orchestra, composed in 1990; "Toccata, Adagio and Fugue" op.36 for string orchestra; the "Double Concerto" op.37 for violin, piano and string orchestra.
His recent work Sonata op.38, composed in 1997 for clarinet and piano, was performed as its world première on 30th June 2001 at the inaugural concert of Festival Pontino. This Sonata is dedicated to Vladimir and Dimitri (his son) Ashkenazy, two outstanding performers whose rendering of this composition was exactly as Maestro Calligaris wished: beautiful, rigorous, incisive and intense.
We wanted to better know Maestro Calligaris' musical depth, along with his discipline; so we met him at the theatre foyer some hours before the concert.

Could you tell us what drove you towards the world of music?

«Indeed, I come from a family of amateur musicians: daddy was an engineer, but he played piano, violin and classic guitar very well, whereas from mum's side everyone was in the classic dancing field, with a severe technique, the Russian one. I was therefore surrounded, since I was a child, by people and talks belonging to the world of music and dancing. My real début as a composer occurred when I was 10, in far 1951: I had composed a ballet for piano and orchestra entitled "The Eternal Fight", the battle between good and evil, soon publicly performed in Rosario, Argentina. Later on, for 25 years, I've played music also by others and I loved the Russian-American technique, the so-called "steel pianism": for instance, we play a pianissimo not with weight but with the speed in the key fall; I was just talking about that with Maestro Ashkenazy today: the arm has to sustain itself a bit.»

Could you describe us in a wider way some of your compositions you're particularly fond of?

«The "Three Madrigals", where I had the opportunity to see the choreography realized by Vittorio Biagi: the lyrics are by Giovan Battista Strozzi and it's for three soloist voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and tenor) accompanied by organ and harpsichord. A composition which gave me great satisfaction, because it earned a wide approval of public, influential critics and, furthermore, the first and the second television Channels of RAI broadcasted it with great success.
The "Renzo's Piano Notebook" op.7, that I composed one year before the Madrigals (namely in 1978), consists in 10 short pieces for piano, where there are patterns of severe counterpoint but there's no lack of melodic lines with very speedy piano features. Then, I could mention other works, such as the "Symphonic Dances" op.26 of 1990 for large orchestra (in homage to Bellini), commissioned by the Teatro Bellini of Catania for its centenary and for the occasion of the 2nd Bellini Festival; whereas the Concerto op.29 for piano and orchestra was written in autumn of 1993. Another recent concert I wrote, after Sonata op.38, is the Double Concerto op.41 for two pianos and orchestra, a work written a little more than one year ago, commissioned by the Magna Grecia Orchestra of Taranto and performed by a brilliant young piano duo: Fabio and Sandro Gemmiti.»

What did you love mainly as a child?

«Two things: trains and the piano. They sound like two passions which have nothing in common, but on the contrary, they are reflected each other in mechanics of certain passages and in lyricism of others, also because I have to thank my father, who taught me an iron discipline and, for a pianist, this is a fundamental talent.»

Who's your teacher you particularly remember?

«I had just one teacher for composition: Louis Machado, with outstanding academic qualifications. He's still alive, because he was young when teaching me, and when I was 16 I got the Certificate of University Professor in High Composition, Counterpoint and Fugue in Argentina.
But I remember with equal admiration my teachers who trained me as a pianist, who are: Jorge Fanelli, Nikita Magaloff, Adele Marcus, Guido Agosti, Arthur Loesser.»

Could you disclose us something about the Sonata that the Ashkenazys are going to perform tonight?

«In some ways, it might be defined as a romantic music, in subjective and expressive sense: it draws its inspiration even from Brahms, not as for his harmony or themes, but his rigours. I've grown up, since my youth, both as a pianist and as a composer, with a precise academic technique.
When I composed my Concerto for piano and orchestra, a very dear friend of mine, Renzo Trabucco - who also edited the internet website devoted to me by Carisch - after having listened to it, he brought it to Vladimir Ashkenazy, who was immediately amazed and then, some time later, called me asking what else I had written, for clarinet. I replied: "The Quartet for clarinets op.34". In the meantime, Professor Raffaele Pozzi listened to its recording and commissioned me a work for the Ashkenazys.
After four years since I finished writing the Sonata op.38, I can eventually listen to its first performance because, when I write music, I never play a note on the piano but I just write and that's all: and you'll listen to what a wonderful and rigorous performance with these outstanding musicians! I'm keen on the technique, since I believe that it isn't conditioning but liberating, because if a performer hasn't got it, he is worried about certain passages he can't properly face up to while playing a work, therefore this fact limits the performer and his communicativeness towards audience. With Ashkenazy, this doesn't happen. Anyway, the result of my composition is like listening a great classic sonata with the contemporary language: I used at most the neoclassic rigours I believe in. That's a perfect, very dilated sonata form where, in the middle, the great counterpoint appears: I had care of it in a maniacal way, not only with a first and second classic theme, but also with a lot of secondary ideas, something like Brahms.»

You were a whizz kid in your career: you achieved your goals very young, especially in composition, but you also got a chair in Cleveland when your were 22. Is it excessive to compare you to a new Mozart?

«You do say that, but when one has had a father from Friuli and a mother from Turin, he's been seldom cuddled. They always got me accustomed to be like any other boy: one is good at playing rugby and one is good at doing music. This allowed me to grow up with a high sense of duty but, above all, to see my neighbour not as a person who owes me something, but it's me who has to do all I can for him: if I make a concert and I don't have the electrician who switches on the light for me, the tuner who tunes my piano, the audience who come and listen to me, what may I be without them? We all are in a perfect mosaic and we all are necessary.»

It is rare to listen to a performer speaking this way: they usually seem to live inside crystal spheres.

«I know, and it isn't their fault, but of those who educated them and got them grown in a world where they were worshipped and made them feel as special beings. I believe that no one owes me anything. Here is, perhaps, the thinking towards humanity. But, be careful: being polite and thanking doesn't mean being stupid, because, unfortunately, there's often confusion in this; but it simply means loving life.
I believe that an artist can well balance between earth and heavens, when there's the constant work from Friuli, the discipline and diplomacy from Turin, the care and open-mindedness from the United States and the exuberance from Latin America.
So playing becomes natural and, as I was professor, I think that if a pupil has personality, it emerges on its own: a strong person gets always rid of any control and comes out reinforced by discipline; but it's also important that the teacher plays for the pupil: it hardly occurs, unfortunately, but it should be a constant habit instead, especially in conservatories, because I believe that the example is the best way to train a pupil.»

Please, just a couple of words about your last live record "Sergio Calligaris", where you're composer and performer: when did you record it and with whom?

«It's a record containing my Concerto op.29 for piano and orchestra first and it was recorded the 24th April 1994 in its world first performance for the Vatican Radio. Afterwards, Agorà, the records label, and Carisch, the distributor, made an agreement with the Vatican Radio, that had previously made over the broadcasting rights for two years to the EBU (European Broadcasting Union of Geneva). The recording of this work took place at the Santa Cecilia Auditorium in Rome, myself as a soloist and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Albanian Radio and Television conducted by Massimo De Bernart.
I'd like to mention my two other works in this CD: the "Sonata-Fantasia" for piano solo op.32, live recorded at the Sacred Music Institute, and the "Second Suite of Symphonic Dances" op.27 for large orchestra, where the piano isn't a solo instrument but just a part of the orchestra, recorded in studio and once more with the Albanian Radio and TV Orchestra.»

Raffaella Brizzi